ZDNET

The Philadelphia PowerBook User Group (PPUG) will meet tomorrow Saturday, March 20, 2010 from 12 noon to 3 p.m. at the Manayunk Brewing Company along the beautiful Schuylkill River in Philadelphia, PA. We usually have lunch (or a brew) while we talk mobile computing.

Now that Apple has announced the iPad, where does it fit in the mobile technology landscape? Does it overlap with the iPhone and the MacBook? Or does it fit exactly in-between the two?

At tomorrow’s PPUG’s meeting I will dissect the pros and cons of Apple’s new “tablet” Mac and will discuss its advantages and disadvantages over a netbook.  If you’re thinking about the iPad, come to the March meeting and we’ll set your straight.

Rob Parker, Bob Snow, as well as Youngmoo Kim will also be on hand to talk about latest developments in mobile technology.  We’ll talk about all the news and announcements from Macworld 2010 with a healthy serving of Q&A. Join us for a great meeting, it’s free and open to you and your guests. Feel free to bring items to sell or swap as well.

Manayunk Brewing Company
4120 Main Street
Philadelphia, PA 19127
215.482.8220

Episode 128 of the PowerPage Podcast is now available. You can either download it from the iTunes Store or directly (46.09 MB, MP3).

Panel: Jason O’Grady and Rob Parker

Topics: This week we discuss Apple’s ban of screen film from its stores, new iPad details that have trickled out, the Apple/HTC suit, and we play and we play “What’s on your Mac.”

Here’s what’s on our Macs this week:

Jason

• Pool Pro Online 3 ($4.99) – Killer 3D pool game with head-to-head, Internet gameplay
• dSLR Camera Remote ($1.99, $19.99 Pro) – View the live viewfinder preview and fire the shutter of your dSLR camera.
• AllRecipes Dinner Spinner Pro ($2.99) – Upgrade to the excellent recipe app with shopping lists and account access.

Rob

• Sabrent SATA to USB 2.5″ hard drive enclosure ($9.99)
• Sushi Guru ($.99) - Sushi Education app

Follow us on Twitter

• @jasonogrady
• @parkerdigital

Subscribe to the PowerPage Podcast in iTunes or add the Podcast RSS feed to your RSS client. Our theme music is generously provided by The Tragically Hip their new release “We Are The Same” is available on iTunes.

, Notebooks & Tablets, Jason D. O’Grady

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Apple has stopped selling screen film — that clear adhesive vinyl that prevents glare and scratches — and any products that ship with a film, in its online and retail stores. The removal came as a surprise to vendors who weren’t notified in advance of Apple’s plans.

Vendors tell Macworld that “Apple will no longer sell such products, or any other products that adhere to Apple devices.” The operative word here is adhere.

One theory that’s being floated is that because the films are difficult to install, they are prone to bubbles and other imperfections, contributing to a higher than normal rate of returns. Another theory is that Apple doesn’t want to give the impression that a screen film is necessary.

The impending release of the iPad on April 3 could also be a contributing factor. Apple doesn’t want customers to feel that a screen film is a requirement or that they didn’t design the iPad with glare and scratch-resistance in mind. I’ll reserve judgment on the iPad screen until I see it in person.

Personally, I think that films are essential. I use a RadTech ClearCal antiglare screen film on my MBP15 because my model only came in glossy. My iPhone film of choice is iWrap, but only on the front. I use a protective case around the rest of my iPhone 24/7.

It’s worth noting that almost every iPod and iPhone case sold these days includes some sort of a screen film as part of the package, and Apple’s new ban includes them too. Macworld reports that some vendors are scrambling to repackage their cases so as not to lose precious shelf space in Apple’s high-traffic stores.

Shocking: A recent survey of enterprise IT managers that administer both PCs and Macs finds that Macs have a better TOC (total cost of ownership) than Windows boxes, and require less user training and help.

The respondents were given the option to select from a range of cost differences. Not only did the administrators across the board say that Macs were less expensive, in all but one category the majority of administrators who said Macs cost less said they were more than 20 percent less expensive to manage than PCs. Of those who asserted that PCs cost less, the majority always asserted that PCs were between 0 and 20 percent less expensive to manage than Macs.

The Enterprise Desktop Alliance survey took results from organizations that had 50 or more servers or over 100 Macs, what the organization said were enterprises, academic sites and government agencies.

The figures that pop out from the chart are those for the time spent troubleshooting problems (16 vs 65 percent, PC and Macs, respectively), dealing with help desk calls (16 vs 54 percent), training users (16 vs 48 percent) and managing system configs. (25 vs 50 percent).

At the Macworld Expo last month, I spoke to T. Reid Lewis, president of the EDA and CEO of Group Logic, a maker of network software and Mac integration products such as ExtremeZ-IP. He pointed out that important enterprise service and back-end platform companies were coming on board the multiplatform bandwagon. That includes IBM, which joined the EDA in Feb. Big Blue’s Informix database, Rational software delivery automationware and Lotus messaging and collaboration platform support Macs, and the company had a booth at the Expo.

Absolute Software, the maker of LoJack and Absolute Manage also joined the EDA in Feb.

Macs are coming into the enterprise and support for them in familiar software management and delivery consoles is catching up. While IT management remains suspicious of the Mac platform and most admins focus on Microsoft certification programs rather than Mac OS X certifications, users continue to purchase Macs and request support.

According to Gene Munster, Piper Jaffray analyst, the year-to-year retail sales of Macs climbed 39 percent during January and February. He said this means some 2.8 to 2.9 million Macs were be sold in the quarter.

Another recent EDA survey found that 66 percent of IT administrators in large organizations that currently have both Macs and PCs will increase the number of Macs in their sites. The reasons? In addition to the ease of support (and the associated cost reductions found in the survey above), user preference, and increased productivity.

Check Out: Are Mac OS X and Apple servers making inroads with the Feds?

We can point to many places for the rise in the Mac’s status: Apple’s continuing execution on its Mac OS X platform; the company’s focus on hardware quality and technological advances in a time when PC makers have raced to the bottom of the market with netbooks and crappy low-cost systems; support for Intel processors and Windows virtualization; the halo effect of the iPod and iPhone platforms; the terrible introduction of Windows Vista; the Apple Store strategy; or others.

Whatever the combination of reasons or just the fact that the Mac is better, users seem to have shaken off the past FUD from Redmond and Intel that fell on the Apple platform. I spoke to a white-collar professional yesterday who is looking at buying a new notebook. He has never used anything other than a PC. But now, he’s seriously looking at a Mac. I told him to go to the local Apple retail store and get a tour.

IT managers will have to deal. They can be thankful that integration is easier than ever and getting better all the time.

Check Out: Yes, based on Mac history, Windows 7.5 will suck less

Check Out: Updates that boost Mac searching and content discovery

Google launched its Nexus One smartphone in January 2010 with only T-Mobile 3G bands. Today that all changed when it announced a new Nexus One handset that is compatible with 3G bands used by AT&T in the U.S. and Rogers in Canada:

Starting today, an additional version of the Nexus One is available from the Google web store that is compatible with AT&T’s 3G network. This new model can be purchased as an unlocked device without a service plan. In addition to AT&T’s 3G network, this device will also run on Rogers Wireless in Canada. And like the first version of the Nexus One, it can be used with most GSM operators globally.

The announcement puts AT&T in the unique position of offering both the iPhone and the Nexus One. The white-hot Nexus One could be the lifeline it needs and a hedge against its exclusivity expiring and Apple taking the iPhone 4.0 to Verizon Wireless.

The announcement also means that AT&T subscribers will conceivably have the option of switching (upgrading?) to a Nexus One when their iPhone contract expires or when eligible for a handset upgrade. I can almost see the Google “Switchers” campaign now.

The announcement also means that Google is now competing even harder with the iPhone.

Searching for data with Spotlight and the Finder provide Mac users with a capable base set of tools and features such as Spotlight’s Smart Folders (folders that show files from around your system without moving the files from their original saved locations) and the Finder’s Quick Look (that lets users view the contents of documents without actually opening them in their parent application). However, Mac users who really want to find data quickly may be interested in third-party tools that build on Spotlight’s technology, several of which were updated recently.

Managers who have content in prepress and other professional content-creation applications may be interested in Markzware’s PageZephyr 2.0 announced last week. The $199 Mac product searches a variety of “uncommon” file types (meaning something other than PDF, .DOC or text). PageZephyr 2.0 can index files from Adobe InDesign versions CS through CS4, Quark QuarkXPress versions 4.0 to 8.x and interestingly, Microsoft Publisher versions 2002 to 2007.

What is very useful about PageZephyr is that it doesn’t require you to have the original application to view documents and extract their content. Of course, Microsoft Publisher is a Windows-only app, so its use on the Mac desktop would require a Windows virtualization solution or BootCamp.

Here’s a bit from the company’s PR:

With PageZephyr 2.0, Markzware is essentially releasing 4 products in one: content searching, content viewing, content extraction and content distribution for these unique file formats. eDiscovery firms trying to find that ’smoking gun,’ or companies trying to manage risks while reducing the cost of maintaining content compliance will benefit from PageZephyr 2.0. Companies in various vertical markets having the need to recycle premium content contained in these document types to market their goods or services, especially through the internet, will find PageZephyr 2.0 invaluable.

PageZephyr relies on Mac OS X technology to work, in fact, current Leopard technology. While it will index both local and server volumes, they must be located on systems running Leopard or Snow Leopard; so, it can’t index volumes on Windows or Linux machines. This includes the .PUB files. All must be located on Spotlight-enabled Mac OS X 10.5.8 or higher volumes.

In addition, content is exported to text or RTF formats. And there are issues with font substitution when handling Publisher files.

Markzware said that until March 31, customers can use a web-coupon to purchase Version 2.0 for $149.

If you want to search for data stored on Windows volumes, then you should take a look at Group Logic’s ExtremeZ-IP AFP server solution. This is Windows-based software and for searching, it lets Network Spotlight connect to Windows Search (the technology formerly known as Windows Desktop Search). To the Mac user, Spotlight returns the search results as if it was from a Mac-based volume. (Of course, you should know what file formats are supported for that search. For example, not all info in PDFs are supported without special plugins.

For those focused on finding the right stuff on our local data, there’s Houdah Software’s HoudahSpot. Many of the company’s products are about search. When I spoke to the founder/programmer Pierre Bernard at Macworld Expo, he was pushing updates to his geotagging software HoudahGeo and a recently released iPhone search app called ACTRocket, which offers shortcuts to searching on various Web search engines such as Google and Yahoo.

HoudahSpot is really what Spotlight should be. It knows all the different criteria that are available to search for, or at times, not, since it lets you also restrict your searches as you drill down towards the right data. You can save your queries as a document, which not only remembers what you wanted to search and where as well as the layout of columns and sort order. And you can preview files with QuickLook.

Version 2.6.x offers Text Preview with highlighting, buttons for Boolean operators and support for Mac OS X services. A newer feature is that the program now remembers which inspectors were open and restores them on launch.

This software has such a spare interface that it’s hard to express all the things it can do. I suggest taking a look at the screencast videos that run down the elements of searching and HoudahSpot’s interface.

At the same time, most Mac users don’t know that Spotlight is extensible. There’s a download page that gathers together plugins for all kinds of special file formats, such as cataloging applications, image files and others.

A reader sent me this email expressing his frustrations about AT&T’s lack of iPhone tethering. I couldn’t agree with him more:

Where the heck is our AT&T tethering!?  I can’t believe that the iPhone still doesn’t have tethering in 2010!  Promise after promise, time just seems to pass with the same “coming soon.” We’ve heard that it will be out at the end of summer 2009 then at the end of 2009 but now it’s all just “coming soon.”

Blackberries do it, Palm Pre does it better (with a wireless hot spot!), my old Sony-Ericsson from 2003 did it. I understand the overwhelmed network argument to a point, since in some locales AT&T is just doomed with infrastructure inadequacies, but it is starting to frustrate.

It is time that they get their act together, with the iPad on the horizon how are they going to handle it? If there is going to be such network demand, that means there is a market for it and I can’t see why AT&T isn’t glad to take our money and run. Make the investment AT&T so we can finally catch up with the rest of the world.

Amen brother.

It’s obviously a concept, but this video by Orkin Design shows what could be in store for the future of tablet computing. The video reminds me of those futuristic digital paper concept videos that surface now and again.

The device of the flexible display allows a new concept in notebook design growing out of the traditional bookformed laptop into unfurling and convolving portable computer. By virtue of the OLED-Display technology and a multi touch screen the utility of a laptop computer with its weight of a mini-notebook and screen size of 13 inch easily transforms into the graphics tablet, which with its 17-inch flat screen can be also used as a primary monitor. On top of everything else all computer utilities from power supply through the holding belt to an interactive pen are integrated in Rolltop. This is really an all-in-one gadget.

Tip: monorail.net